DICK UMILE NAMED FINALIST FOR SPENCER PENROSE NATIONAL COACH OF THE YEAR

Mar 31, 2010

WAKEFIELD, Mass. – Head Coach Dick
Umile of the University of New Hampshire men’s
hockey team has been named one of nine finalist for the Spencer
Penrose Award, given annually to the top NCAA Division I
Men’s Ice Hockey Coach of the Year. To be a finalist for this
award, you must either be voted Coach of the Year in your
conference or take your team to the NCAA Frozen Four. The
announcement was made March 31 by the America Hockey Coaches
Association.Umile is an eighth-time finalist for this award and won
the Spencer Penrose Award in 1999.

Umile earns Hockey East Coach of
the Year for a league-record sixth time, surpassing Boston
University’s Jack Parker. Umile guided the Wildcats, who were
picked fourth in the Hockey East Preseason Poll, to their eighth
regular season championship including the third in the last four
years. Umile guided the ‘Cats to the NCAA’s for the
ninth-straight season and to the regional finals for the
second-consecutive year. The Wildcats lead the Hockey East
standings for an eye-popping 16 straight weeks, taking over the
league lead Nov. 23, 2009 and never relinquishing that position.
UNH went unbeaten at home in Hockey East play for the first time
since the 1999-00 season and won the regular season series with six
of nine league foes. Umile helped guide a team that lost 10
players, including Hockey East All Star and leading scorer James
van Riemsdyk, from last year’s squad to its 22nd
straight trip to the Hockey East playoffs and home-ice advantage in
the quarterfinals for a league-best 14th-straight
season. After going just 2-6-2 over its first 10 games,
Umile’s Wildcats responded with a 10-1-2 mark over the next
13 games, including a 12-game unbeaten streak in Hockey East play.
Umile’s run in the regular season was capped by a dramatic
3-3 come-from-behind deadlock with Boston College that clinched the
league’s crown in front of the home fans on Senior Day at
Whittemore Center.

The award is named in honor of the
former Colorado Springs benefactor who built the Broadmoor Hotel
Complex, site of the first 10 NCAA Hockey Championships. It will be
announced after the Frozen Four and presented at the American
Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) Coach of Men’s Hockey
Banquet on Saturday, May 1, in Naples, Fla.